Mongo pushing is one of the few things that skateboarders universally hate.

Opinions might vary when it comes to things like which tricks look the best, or which obstacles are the most fun, but the majority of skateboarders agree that no matter what trick you’re doing, or what it is you’re skating, mongo pushing is pretty much unacceptable.

Now a lot of skaters who push mongo are confused by this, and they don’t really get why it’s such a big deal, so I thought it was worth making a post breaking things down to explain why so many skaters dislike mongo pushing.

In short, the reason why skaters don’t like mongo is that it doesn’t look good from a style perspective, and it makes skating harder. Style is a very big factor in skateboarding, and pushing mongo looks weird compared to pushing normally. Not only that, but pushing mongo requires you to shuffle your feet around before every trick, which can make landing tricks harder to do. Mongo pushing is also less stable than pushing normally since your foot is on the back of the board, and it can be much harder to balance.

What Is Mongo Pushing?

So first things first, let’s talk about what it means to push mongo, because a lot of people really just don’t know.

Simply put: Mongo pushing is when someone pushes on a skateboard using their front foot instead of their back foot.

So to break it down, there are 2 stances in skateboarding: “Goofy” and “Regular”.

If you’re goofy-footed that means you skate with your right foot in the front, and if you’re regular-footed, that means you skate with your left foot in the front.

If a goofy rider pushes mongo, that means they’d be pushing with their right foot, and if a regular rider pushes mongo, that means they’d be pushing with their left foot.

Ever since skateboarding was created, pushing with your back foot has always been the standard. Of course from the start, there have been people who push mongo, but it’s always been a minority, and it’s become even less popular over time.

People didn’t necessarily dislike mongo pushing when skateboarding first started, but once skateboarding began to develop, it didn’t take that long for skaters to start to make fun of people who did push mongo.

There’s a little bit of debate as to where the term mongo even came from, but let’s just say that none of the origins have a very flattering definition. The most common definition I’ve heard is that it comes from a European slang word, but it’s been around so long it’s kind of hard to track down.

Oddly enough, for the longest time, skaters seemed to be okay with people pushing switch mongo, even after it was widely considered bad to push mongo when skating in your regular stance.

This is probably because skating switch wasn’t even a thing for the longest time, so people were given a pass for not learning how to push with their back foot in both stances.

In recent years though it seems like most pros have stopped mongo pushing altogether, even when going switch, and even though it still does happen occasionally, it’s pretty rare to see any pro skaters who push using their front foot.

Why is mongo pushing bad?

Now a lot of people are probably confused as to why this even matters, especially people who push mongo themselves, but there actually are some legitimate criticisms of mongo pushing.

Reason #1

The first and one of the biggest reasons why skateboarders don’t like mongo pushing just comes down to style.

A lot of people don’t realize how important style is in skateboarding, and whether you like it or not, most skaters agree that pushing mongo just doesn’t look good.

Is this a fair decision? Maybe not. But, that doesn’t change the fact that most skaters don’t like the way it looks.

I mean, most skaters also agree that it doesn’t look good when someone flails their arms while skating, and instead it’s considered much more stylish when someone keeps their arms down by their side.

This might not be fair to people who move their arms a lot, but unfortunately, that’s just the standard.

The same goes for doing flip tricks that rocket instead of leveling out, or having your toe hang off of the board when you land a trick, or even tic-tacking after your land.

These are all agreed upon things in skateboarding that just don’t look good from a style perspective. Not everyone agrees with them, but for the most part, it’s widely accepted.

Think about it just like clothing styles.

Everyone has their own idea of what looks good and what doesn’t, but some things are just universally agreed on.

You should skate however you want to skate, the same way you should wear whatever you want to wear, but at the end of the day, there is a general consensus of what looks good, and most skaters agree that mongo pushing doesn’t.

Reason #2

Reason number two why a lot of skaters consider mongo pushing bad is because it’s harder to throw down and it takes longer to set up for a trick.

If you push regularly, then throwing down is a nice smooth motion where your front foot lands towards the front of the board and you can easily transition to pushing right away.

If you push mongo though, then the whole process is much more awkward, and you need to do way more adjustments before you’re positioned right on the board.

The same goes for actually pushing or doing a trick.

When you push with your back foot, you can already have your front foot close to the position it needs to be in to do whatever trick you’re trying.

But, if you push mongo, you first have to put your front foot into the position it needs to be in, and then move your back foot to wherever it needs to be on the tail.

Essentially you’re adding both a figurative and literal extra step to the process, which is a big deal in skateboarding since a fraction of a second can determine whether or not you land a trick.

In a lot of situations, this extra step doesn’t really matter, but if you’re skating a spot without a lot of roll-up, or if you’re doing a line, then adding in the extra step can make landing a trick a lot harder than it needs to be.

Mongo pushing basically forces you to shuffle your feet around every time you want to do a trick, but if you push with your back foot, then you can adjust your feet in a much more fluid and natural motion.

Reason #3

Reason number three why mongo pushing is bad is because it makes you a lot less stable while pushing.

When someone pushes with their back foot, they’re able to keep their front foot either in the middle or the front of the board.

This makes riding around much more stable since you can turn easier, shift your weight easier, and prevent the board from moving in either direction when going over a bump.

If you push mongo, it can be harder to turn smoothly when you’re going fast, your weight pretty much has to be on the back of the board, and since your foot is so far back, there’s a chance the front of the board will bounce in a different direction whenever you hit a bump.

I will say, if someone’s been pushing mongo for while, they’re probably used to all of this, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’d most likely be better off pushing regularly.

Benefits of pushing mongo

Now even though there are a lot of cons to pushing mongo, to be fair, there are also some benefits as well.

First, pushing mongo will make it much easier for you to learn how to push switch because you’ll be pushing with the same foot.

This is because if you’re used to pushing mongo and you decide to skate switch, the foot you normally push with will now be in the back, and you’ll likely be more comfortable pushing than someone who doesn’t push mongo.

Another benefit is that when you aren’t going fast, turning can actually be a lot quicker when you push mongo because you’re able to lift up the nose of the board using your back foot.

Of course, it doesn’t really work as well if you have a lot of speed, but if you aren’t going that fast then it can actually be easier to turn sharply.

Say what you will about pushing mongo, but, it does make certain aspects of skateboarding easier to learn.

How to stop pushing mongo

There’s a lot of skaters out there who want to stop pushing mongo, but they just don’t know how, or where to start.

Well, the good news is, it’s actually a lot easier than you may think.

Learning how to stop pushing mongo on a skateboard is just like anything else, it takes practice. However, since you already have a foundation to go off of, it’s relatively easy to do.

The best way to learn how to stop pushing mongo is simply to practice pushing normally for 10-15 minutes every time you skate.

This will slowly build up your comfort level over time, and eventually, it will feel just as natural (if not even more natural) than mongo pushing.

The key here is to force yourself to practice every time you skate, otherwise, you’ll never do it.

I can personally vouch for this method because it’s how I learn to push normally when going switch. For years I’d push mongo when going switch, but I finally forced myself to practice pushing switch normally and now it’s second nature.

The best part is, it’s really easy to practice.

All you have to do is cruise around normally while practicing turning and setting up your feet for tricks after pushing.

It might seem daunting at first, but I can assure you it gets progressively easier the more you do it.

Should you push mongo?

So now that we’ve gone over what mongo pushing is, why skaters hate mongo pushers, and even a few benefits of mongo pushing, the question is, is mongo pushing bad and should you do it?

Well, I think the answer really depends.

It’s pretty much undeniable that pushing mongo is worse than pushing regular purely from a functionality standpoint.

Having to throw down weird, shuffle your feet around on the board, and put more effort into turning can make doing tricks or even just riding around a lot harder.

With that said, people have their own way of doing things, and if you’re okay with having that slight disadvantage, then there’s nothing really wrong with it.

On the other hand, it’s well agreed upon that pushing mongo just doesn’t look good from a style perspective, and even if you don’t personally agree with that, that doesn’t change the opinions of others.

There might be someone out there who likes doing rocket kickflips, and they might think that a rocket kickflip looks way better than some kickflip that’s super tweaked.

They’re definitely entitled to that opinion, but if everyone else says they like tweaked kickflips more than rocket kickflips, you can’t really argue with the overall consensus because, at the end of the day, it’s all subjective.

Now as far as whether or not you should push mongo, personally, I don’t think you should. To me, pushing mongo makes skating harder, and I just don’t think it looks as good as pushing normal.

People who push mongo might say that it feels more comfortable or it’s what they’re used to, but pushing on a skateboard is just like anything else. The more you do it, the better you get at it.

For example, when a lot of people learn how to surf, they naturally go to their knees before standing up. It feels more comfortable and natural, but it’s actually a bad habit and can make it a lot harder to catch a wave.

Also, most people could make the argument that pushing switch mongo feels more natural than pushing switch regular, but people still learn how to push switch properly simply because it looks better and makes things easier in the long run.

The truth about pushing mongo on a skateboard

Now I do want to say that even though in my opinion I don’t think people should push mongo, I’m not going to try to force anyone not to do it.

I look at it as if someone has a weird foot position for a flip trick.

I might personally think it looks bad, and it might make doing the trick harder, but if that’s what they want to do, I’m not going to hate on them for doing it.

At the end of the day, skateboarding is subjective, and what one person likes, another person might not like.

Even though I make jokes about it sometimes, I don’t actually care what anyone does on their skateboard, and honestly, it shouldn’t matter even if I did because everyone is going to have their own opinion.

If you like to push mongo, then by all means go for it, because it’s really just personal preference.

Do a lot of skaters dislike it? Yeah. But if you like it, then that’s really all that matters.

Hopefully this post shed some light on why skaters don’t like mongo, and even though I am biased, I tried to be as objective as possible.